With the IPL finally coming to an end after five weeks of incessant non-stop action, it will soon be stock taking time. What are the positives to come out of this one of off-shore venture and what are the areas the organisers will do well to brush up before the tournament returns home come March 2010. For a start, the IPL returns home having established itself as India?s first international sports brand. In fact, for sixty plus years since Independence, India hasn?t been able to cultivate a sports brand of its own. We still crave for the Wimbledon, English Premier League or even the more fancy Formula One circuit, a recent rage in the country. Never, however, have we bothered about our own international sports brand, which the IPL is finally turning out to be. It is perhaps not unfair to expect that in a couple of years from now there will also be a dedicated global IPL fan base that will travel to India for the tournament, adding to its fanfare and international reputation. IPL 2009 has surely set the stage in that regard.
The second significant organisational success is the successful crusade against piracy. Exactly a year earlier, I had written in my column in these pages that pirated websites telecasting IPL matches was a norm in North America. I had watched a series of games on such sites during IPL 2008. This year, however, the picture is fundamentally different. I haven?t yet come across a single pirated site that is telecasting IPL games live. While some sites are still showing the ongoing West Indies-England series live and have already promised viewers live action from the forthcoming T-20 world cup, they have, so far as I have been able to discern, stayed away from the IPL!
While pirated live telecasts seem a thing of the past, sale of IPL match videos, however, continue unabated. Just as in year one, cricket fans in Toronto have access to all matches of the IPL in case they wish to revisit the games within hours of the matches ending in South Africa. These DVD?s, with excellent picture quality to boost, are being sold for a bare $4, a dollar increase from last year, and are available all over Gerrard Street, Toronto?s famous desi hub. Better packaged and advertised compared to the inaugural edition, they are neatly shelved alongside all matches from the ICC T-20 world cup in South Africa and IPL season one.
Turning to the on field action, India?s gains from IPL season two are limited. Except the rediscovery of Rohit Sharma and RP Singh and the emergence of Pragyan Ojha, Indian gains seem rather insignificant. Even Yusuf Pathan, who started the tournament with a real bang, faded away towards the end, resulting in Rajasthan Royals failing to make the semi-finals this time round.
In contrast, the tournament has left Indians with more questions than answers. What happened to the dynamic opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir? Uniquely, they haven?t fired in a single match together in IPL season two. Why is it that most Indian batsman, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan to name a few, are proving to be consistently inconsistent? And in bowling Zaheer Khan?s injury and Ishant Sharma?s expensive streak are sure causes for worry going into the T-20 world cup in England a week from now.
As an Indian supporter one only expects that these questions will soon be answered and India, true to their reputation as favourites going into the tournament, will do us all proud by retaining the trophy they had won in South Africa two years earlier.
Finally, one must concede that strictly from a spectator?s point of view, IPL season one is ahead in comparison to season two in terms of passion, drama and excitement. With the home advantage back next year, season three should surely even things out once again.
?The writer is a cricket historian